“Next stop on the gentrification train: the South Bronx,” Matt Muze wrote on Facebook.

Ed García Conde, who has run the Welcome2TheBronx blog for six years, said, “We have our own reasons why the Bronx should be celebrated and it is not because of interlopers.”

“Every single business the story mentioned has been around for 12 months or less,” added Mr. García Conde, who said he would have preferred that the article point to businesses in the Bronx that “have been there through the fires.”

Some would prefer the Bronx had not appeared on the list at all.

“The Bronx does not need validation from The New York Times,” said Adam Levine-Peres, 29, who has run the ProjectBronx YouTube channel for three years. “We want to speak for ourselves. We validate ourselves.”

Mr. Levine-Peres posted a reaction video on his YouTube channel, mainly because he said he saw social media as a way to fight back gentrification.

South Bronx in The New York Times: Good or Bad?CreditVideo by ProjectBronx

“The Bronx is not the ‘Piano District,’” Mr. Levine-Peres said, referring to a developer’s new nickname for the Mott Haven neighborhood, harking back to its onetime status as a center for piano production. “That is not the community or the neighborhood.”

Others acknowledged that gentrification has already arrived in the South Bronx.

“Gentrification is already here,” said John Matos, a graffiti artist known as Crash, who owns the WallWorks New York art gallery. “You can’t fight it, you can’t deny it’s here.”

Others point to its authenticity as a reason to visit the neighborhood.

“Come see the South Bronx and come see things that are genuine,” said Giuseppe González, 40, a former Bronxite and the owner of Suffolk Arms, a bar in Manhattan.

“I grew up in the ’80s in the South Bronx and you can’t romanticize it,” he said. “But,” he added, “if you really want a picture of what New York City used to be like come to the Bronx.” As a business owner, Mr. Gonzalez said that he wanted businesses to open up and thrive in the Bronx, but that he also wanted them to be responsive to the community around them.

“It is the last true borough in New York City with the true flavor of New York,” Mr. García Conde said.

Here are some alternative suggestions for visitors, from Mr. García Conde and others: